Teaching Video

This week we watched a video on a teacher's first year at school. Jennifer is an eager and excited first grade teacher who is ready to take on her job. The video shoes how she prepare before the school year starts, how she deals with parents on the first day, plans future lessons, and takes care of her class. It also showed some of her student teaching experiences. It follows through how she handles school life and home life including a new addition to her family and tries to find a balance (and time to sleep).You can find the video at this link http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-4196998872085873728&q=first+year+teacher&hl=en.
At first I was a little shocked by the video, the way they spoke about the first year of teaching and took a negative attitude towards was intimidating. However, my mom is a teacher, so I heave heard from her both the good and bad about teaching. Whether it be troublesome students, overbearing principals or long hours, I've seen my Mom work through it all. I can't say that this video really changed my perspective on teaching. I know that it is going to be tough especially the first year. It will be a lot of work to build a portfolio.
As for dealing with parents, it was good to see that they were receptive to a young teacher. I think as long as you are prepared, parents will trust you. She prepared well for the parents and was able to answer their questions. She was also able to keep her students in check as well. She taught them lots of songs, and encouraged their get togethers like Halloween. As a teacher, seeing students have fun and sing and learn is the most rewarding thing. I think Jennifer definitely has her priorities strait when it comes to teaching.
A few other teachers and administrators had positive things to say about Jennifer, and teaching in general. One teacher described the first year as a "bear." But that is to be expected. The teacher who helped Jennifer with her student teaching told about how creative Jennifer was, how enthusiastic she was and how that is often the case in new teachers. They had positive feedback about how Jennifer re-evaluated lessons. She knows when to speed up, slow down, and go over things again.
I liked Jennifer's comment about how there would not be doctors or lawyers without teachers. I know that my parents were skeptical at first about my major choice. But i continue to remind them about the benefits of teaching both intrinsic and extrinsic. I do worry about "teacher burnout" but i could see that happening in any career. Hopefully I will never have to deal with a situation like that.
Overall I think that Jennifer did a good job handleing her students especially while being pregnant. She was good with her students about telling her students about the baby, handleing pagents at school, and taking care of discipline and learning as well.